Bubble Beats:
From Taiwanese Tea Culture to DIY Instruments

A creative workshop blending the sounds and tastes of Taiwan – from traditional instruments to DIY straw music, let's sip culture and play sound.

In the workshop we will focus on these aspects:

Bodily Memory – How does the body store and reactivate cultural and sonic experiences? 
We look at the body as a long-term archive for cultural and sonic memories. Through repeated practice of muscle movements, postures, and breathing techniques, experiences are stored in the muscles and proprioception and can be recalled in the right moment.

Motion – Movement as a vehicle for time, rhythm, and collective interaction 
Movement is fundamental to sound production, organizing rhythm and time, and serving as a visual language for social interaction. Through the creation and imitation of motion, people communicate and establish connection without speaking.

Signal – A multimodal system of nonverbal communication 
Signals operate across the senses as prompts for interaction, and can emerge from sound, movement, taste, or sight. Learning to identify and generate signals helps us understand how culture is transmitted, interpreted, and reimagined.

Sound – A physical vibration, a cultural carrier, and a tool for emotional expression
Sound is not only melody or noise, it evokes memory, expresses emotion, and serves as a marker of cultural identity. As a signal, it can be perceived and responded to through pitch, rhythm, gestures, lighting, or even flavor.

YA-NUNG HUANG (she/her)  is a Taiwanese interdisciplinary artist and musician whose practice spans video, sound, found objects, and embodied performance. A suona player trained in traditional double-reed instruments, she graduated from National Taiwan University with a degree in Social Work, cultivating a keen awareness of social dynamics. Her work centers on three core concepts: bodily experience in space, rediscovery of the everyday, and the collection of fragments. She frequently breaks formal boundaries by merging experimental sound, theatrical improvisation, and traditional music reimagined through a contemporary lens.

Deeply engaged with issues of cultural inclusion, human rights, and marginalized communities, Huang is committed to socially engaged art and the creation of intergenerational, crosscultural collaborative platforms. Drawing from fieldwork and sensory immersion, her projects often activate specific sites through body and sound, exploring art as lived experience. In 2024, she launched the long-term project “The Way Back”, tracing the historical and cultural routes of the suona along the Silk Road. Integrating regional histories and local perspectives, the project sets the stage for ongoing intercultural dialogue – expanding the expressive possibilities of instruments, bodies, and languages.